Independent Practice Resource

We are currently looking into several different curricular resources to use for Elementary Math next year. One of the resources that we are looking at has some great workbooks available for free online!

We would love for you to take a look, use in your classroom, and let us know what you think!

Here is the link. 

Assessment Week

We are right in the middle of Q2 assessments and it feels like a lot between STEP and IA's, so you might need a pep talk...

GO BE AWESOME!

Student Goal Setting

This week while visiting Ms. D's 4th grade class at KACD I got to see students setting and owning their own goals for the upcoming IA. They set at attainable goal and came up with awesome action items to help them achieve their goals.

It was amazing to see the level of ownership that students are taking over their learning and this is definitely a skill they will need in college - setting goals and creating a plan.

Thanks for sharing with us, Ms. D!!

You can download a copy here. 

1st Grade Numbers to 99

Here is a unit test to help plan the Numbers to 99 Unit and to check student mastery at the end of the unit. 

1st Grade Geometry & Fractions

Next quarter, 1st grade is working on Geometry and then allowing students to extend their knowledge of shapes to fractions. It is a fun unit with lots of great read alouds and a ton of engaging activities that the students will love.

Here is a unit plan that can be used (aligned to the TEKS) and a unit assessment to gauge student mastery. Enjoy!

Probability Unit Test

1st grade is finishing up their probability unit, such a fun topic!

Here is an assessment that can be given at the end of the unit to see which individual topics students mastered and what they need more work on.

Sorry it is coming out so close to unit assessment day, hopefully it will still be helpful!

Here is the link. 

Let me know if you want the word version to edit, the formatting and fonts just might be a bit off.

Planning for CGI

Cognitively Guided Instruction is not as based in planning as the traditional math lesson. The most important aspects of planning for an effective CGI lesson is selecting a problem and anticipating students responses.

Selecting the problem can be challenging because you want to make sure it is a realistic, familiar context and that students can solve in multiple ways and share their thinking. Anticipating responses ensures that you know where the lesson is going and which student work samples you will highlight to get at the learning goal for the day.

According to the newest version of Children's Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction, the prepared CGI teacher:

• Chooses problem contexts that are accessible
• Ensures students have tool available to them to support their thinking
• Encourages students to do what makes sense to them
• Makes sure all students have a way to get started 

So much of CGI is adjusting instruction in the moment and changing course for the next day based on what students did today, this makes the planing process pretty basic. 

Here is an example template that can be used to plan for the lesson:

Here is the link to download a copy. 

Here is an example of a completed template for Kindergarten. 

Happy planning!

NWEA RIT to Resource

Last week, I spent several days at the NWEA Fusion conference learning about MAP from both the company who makes it (NWEA), as well as other users. I am so excited to share all that I learned with teachers to help set our students up for MAP success.

One new tool I learned more about is "RIT to Resource". It is a website that allows teachers or parents to input a student's RIT score by strand and access tons of free resources aligned to that band level. It is only available for MAP 2 - 5 and you need the RIT score by band handy. It is an awesome tool, so check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Math Races

If you ask middle school math teachers one thing they wish their students knew from elementary school, almost all of them will say math fact fluency. It is challenging to balance teaching conceptual math and building fact fluency, but there are lots of fun ways to practice and build automaticity with math facts. 

Last week at our Math Instructional Leader's meeting, Ms. G at KACD shared her awesome Math Race routine. 

See below for the details from Ms. G :)

Math Races

Materials:

·        Flashcards

o   +1 through + 9, -1 through -9, x 1 through x 12

·        Tests (www.math-drills.com; single addition/subtraction/multiplication facts arranged horizontally) *cut in half vertically so each sheet has 2 columns of facts for students

o   +1 through + 9, mixed addition, -1 through -9, mixed subtraction, x 1 through x 12, mixed multiplication

·        Tracker

·        Timer

Routine:

·        Call each level at a time

·        Students walk to pick up their tests FACE DOWN

·        Students put their paper on their desk FACE DOWN

·        Students write their name on the back

·        Students sit in STAR (cannot touch their paper or pencil)

·        Once all students have a test and are sitting in STAR, put 3 minutes on the timer

·        Say “start!” – students should start right away

·        Once the timer goes off, pencils should go down immediately and papers should be put in the middle

Grading:

·        Students must fill the entire sheet and only have 5 free. That means, they can leave 5 blank or get 5 wrong. If it’s more than 5, they didn't pass.

·        If a student passes, celebrate with 3 snaps. If a student doesn't pass, send them positive/good try vibes.

·        If a student passes, they should put a sticker or a check on the track and swap their flashcards. If a student doesn't pass, they will try again next week!

Storing Flashcards

Storing Tests

Trackers

Here are links to Addition Flashcards, Subtraction Flashcards, Multiplication Flashcards.

Thanks Ms. G for sharing your awesome routine with us!! 

Time for Review!

Over the next couple weeks, all grade levels are starting to review content from the first Semester in preparation for IA 2. Review days can be tricky, but can also be really fun. Some review days are taken up with lessons that need to be retaught using a full lesson cycle. Other days can be more of a mixed review, so here are some ideas for the days that are mixed:

• Break your kids into rotation groups based on what they need to practice as measured by unit tests. You can pull a group to practice addition and subtraction, another to practice geometry, and a third to practice multiplication. It is a great way to give your students exactly the review that they need. 
• Create a grid where students can walk around and "Find someone who" knows how to solve a problem on their paper. Here is an example:

• Create a Jeopardy game with practice review questions that students can work to solve.
  
• Buddy Problem Solving: Create a packet of problems that get progressively harder. Students work with leveled partner to get through as many as they can. 
• Create review centers that students can practice, based on what they need to work on. Math Wire & K-5 Math teaching resources have a ton of good ones for free. 
  

I will keep an eye out for some awesome review happening in your classroom to share with others!

Probability

Probability is really fun to teach...will it probably happen? Probably not? It is so applicable to real like and they love predicting the outcomes of things.

There are a ton of different activities involving skittles and spinners, but here are a few of my favorites:

•   Excellent Read Alouds: A Very Improbable Story, It’s Probably Penny,  Probably Pistachio

• Give out raffle tickets throughout the unit and talk about how they can increase their chances of winning. This is a great way to invest them, build background knowledge, and help them understand probability based on experience
  

• Probability Games: http://mathwire.com/games/datagames.html

• Bridges Lessons: http://bridges1.mathlearningcenter.org/media/Bridges_Gr1_OnlineSupplement/B1SUP-E2_DataProbabil_0709.pdf

Enjoy!

CGI Problem Solving: Recording and Posting Strategies

Across campuses, most teachers are implementing student led problem solving times. Some campuses are doing it following the CGI model, others are doing Worthy tasks, and others are doing a problem of the day.

All are great ways to make sure that your students are applying their math skills and thinking critically about math problems on a daily basis. The use of technology in the classroom is amazing - engages students, is time efficient, and allows for less prep work. While going over problems and sharing strategies, showing student work using a power point, white board, or doc cam accomplishes the same goal as charting it out on chart paper. The difference comes in students being able to reference strategies. Students need to be able to go back and reference past successful strategies to help solve more complex problems. Here are some examples from KIPP Houston of how they chart and organize past charts.

Investing Students in Goal: Visual Classroom Tracking

Visual tracking in the classroom allows students to see their progress towards goals. While visiting KIPP LA and KIPP Houston we saw several examples of tracking systems that are really fun, the kids enjoyed, and did not seem to embarrass or "call out" any of the students.

There are a lot of different things that you can choose to visually track in math. Here is an example of a teacher who is tracking number recognition in Kindergarten. Students will get to put a bug on the flower when they master 0 - 10 and another for 11 - 20.

Here is an example of a Kindergarten teacher tracking counting to 30, students will get to move their frog as they show mastery. 

At both schools, we saw MAP investment and tracking present in most classrooms. Students know what their current score is and what their goal is. Here are 2 examples of classroom MAP trackers.

 It is important that students know where they are and what they are trying to work towards. It also makes your classroom look even cuter :)

Chartchums: Guide to Great Anchor Charts

Anchor charts are a great tool in early elementary classrooms. They give students visual reminders, record the learning, and are great reference tools. My favorite resource for charting is the website Chartchums. They have tons of examples of great charts on the blog, such as the one below.

They also wrote an entire book  devoted to charting in the K-2 Classroom focusing on Math, Science, and Social Studies. Pretty awesome!

Happy charting!

1st Grade: Fact Fluency

Addition and subtraction fact fluency is challenging to teach because students need a lot of practice and cannot be expected to know all their facts at the end of a single lesson. Having a bilingual model with 2 classrooms has a ton of advantages, with one being an additional math block to work on number fluency and problem solving. While students are working on fact strategies in the primary language of instruction, there are several routines that can be done in the supporting language to push them to mastery of these important facts.

Below are 3 very important types of facts and a couple routines that could be done daily to practice:

• Making Ten
• Students find a partner on the carpet. Partner A hold up any amount of fingers that they choose. Partner B holds up the rest of the fingers necessary to make 10 and says the number sentence.

Example:

Student A holds up 4 fingers

Student B holds up 6 fingers and says "4 and 6 is 10"

Then students switch and partner B holds up fingers first

• Teacher flashes a ten frame and students hold up how many more they need to make 10.

Example:

Teacher shows the following ten frame:

Students hold up 1 finger, and together say "9 and 1 is 10"

• 10 more/ 10 less
• Practice counting by tens, starting with any number on the hundreds chart.

Example:
Point to 6 on the hundreds chart and students count, "6, 16, 26, 36". Talk about and make notes of patterns when counting by tens (which is the same as adding ten). You can see the first day of the chart, we started at 6 and the second day we started at 3. You can continue to use the same chart and just document with different colors for multiple days.

• Flash a dot card as the starting numbers. Students write what is 10 more on their whiteboard.

Example:

Students would write 15 on their white board because 10 more than 5 is 15

• Doubles 
• You  can play the same game that students played using their fingers to practice making 10. Partner A holds up fingers, Partner B has to hold up the same amount and say the doubles fact. 
• You can also play the dot card game from 10 more. Hold up a card and they double it

Example

Students write 5 + 5 = 10

Students love playing math games and these are quick, fun whole group routines that will really help your students master the basic facts!

Kindergarten: Graphing Unit

Teaching math in small groups has a ton of advantages, but it is very challenging in Kindergarten because students need a lot of instruction and practice before they are ready to independently work. Mrs. W at KACD is working hard to make sure her students are getting authentic practice and trying to make 3 rotations and an exit ticket fit into 45 minutes - no small challenge!

In looking at the next concept coming up in Kinder, here are some resources and ideas about how to approach the graphing unit with a small group instruction model. 

Kindergarten Graphing Unit

Day	Objective	Exit Ticket*	Whole Group Mini Lesson	IP	Small Group
1	SWBAT create a pictograph	For these lessons, I would just check their IP because this would take them a long time to do as an exit ticket	Make a pictograph together where you have different cut outs ready to go and you attach them to the graph on the board – something fun like they pick their favorite animal and get to put on the graph (but only do like 10 kids),  this mini lesson should be enough for your highest group to do the IP	Here is an example worksheet, I would take out the questions in the middle, so all they are doing is creating the pictograph	L: Make another class pictograph together on chart paper (in the format of the IP) and really practice counting the number of each item, have them do the beginning of the IP with you
					M: Make another class pictograph together on chart paper (in the format of the IP), have them start the IP with you
					H: go over the work and make sure they did it correct and start answering questions based on the graph.
2	SWBAT create a bar graph		Make a bar graph together of something fun, favorite ice cream flavor? This mini lesson should be enough for the highest group to do the IP	Here is an example worksheet, again, I would take out the questions in the middle so all they are doing is creating the bar graph	L: Make another class bar graph together on chart paper (in the format of the IP) and really practice counting the number of each item, have them do the beginning of the IP with you
					M: Make another class bar graph together on chart paper (in the format of the IP), have them start the IP with you
					H: go over the work and make sure they did it correct and start answering questions based on the graph.
3	SWBAT create a table graph		Look at a set (maybe unifix cubes or magnets) and create a tally chart to sort what you have. This mini lesson should be enough for the highest group to do the IP	Here is an example worksheet, I would take the questions off the bottom (but use them in small group with the last group)	L: Make another class tally  chart together on chart paper (in the format of the IP) and really practice counting the number of each item, have them do the beginning of the IP with you
					M: Make another class tally chart together on chart paper (in the format of the IP), have them start the IP with you
					H: go over the work and make sure they did it correct and start answering questions based on the graph.
4	SWBAT interpret a pictograph	1) Are there more zebras or giraffes? 2)       What animal has the least? 3)       How many tigers and bears are there? You will want to have the pictures on the exit ticket and read the question to them. Today’s exit ticket might take closer to 10 minutes – so shorten rotations to around 7 minutes	Using the pictograph you made in Lesson 1, answer the following questions together: Which has the least? Which has the most? Are there more ___ or ____? Are there less ___ or ___? How many ___ and _____?	Here is an example worksheet that they can continue to practice pictographs. Because most of them cannot read yet, just have them practice making the pictograph and write “m” next to what has the most and “l” next to what has the least.	L: Show them a premade pictograph and use their write board to answer questions similar to what you did during the whole group. Before switching, have them do the beginning of the IP with you
					M: Show them a premade pictograph and use their write board to answer questions similar to what you did during the whole group. Before switching, have them do the beginning of the IP with you
					H: go over the work and make sure they did it correct and then ask them questions based on the graph that they created for IP, or using the same graph you used in groups 1 & 2.
5	SWBAT interpret a tally chart	These lessons will look exactly like lesson 4, just with tally charts and bar graphs. For IP just have them practice making it and focus on analyzing graphs during your whole group lesson, small groups, and exit ticket. Here are some resources to pull graphs: http://www.education.com/worksheets/kindergarten/graphing-data/ http://www.kidslearningstation.com/graphing/kindergarten-graphing.asp http://kiduls.net/free-graphing-worksheets-for-kindergarten http://www.kidscount1234.com/ (click on “graphing” on the left side)
6	SWBAT interpret a bar graph
7	Graphing Review	Whatever they need to practice or a fun graphing activity J

*Students can do an exit ticket that matches the day’s objective because it is given the last 5 minutes of the math block, after they all have had the small group lesson.

*There are more than likely going to be early finishers for the IP, maybe a number or counting center that they know and can play

*Make sure that you create and read both horizontal and vertical graphs

If you have any graphing resources or ideas please share in the comments :) 

1st Grade: Addition & Subtraction Unit Test

We have been talking a lot about formative assessment this quarter and ways that we can check in with our students at the end of each lesson and the end of each unit.

For unit tests, it is best to group questions by skill and see exactly what students need to work on both to make reteach groups and guide future instruction based on student work. Here is a sample unit assessment for the 1st grade Addition & Subtraction Unit. Make sure that when grading, you pay close attention to the strategies that the students used as this unit is based on teaching strategies for quick addition and subtraction. We want to see students moving away from direct modeling and towards mental math strategies. You can get so much information beyond just correct and incorrect!

Please let me know if you need a copy in word to make edits :)

Have a great Monday!

3rd & 4th Grade: Teaching Student Centered Mathematics

One of the best resources for teaching conceptual math, in my opinion, is Teaching Student Centered Mathematics.

It breaks down the building blocks of math understanding and how to teach concepts conceptually, rather than through procedures.

Today I came across the workbook that goes along with this amazing resource, available online. It is the 3rd - 5th grade edition and has some excellent activities.
Check it out!!

1st Grade: Using 10 to add 9

There has been a lot of talk recently about how to get our 1st graders adding and subtracting fluently. It is challenging to build and a lot of students just are not visualizing these strategies and using them independently.

Yesterday, I watched an amazing small group lesson with Ms. A at KAO. She was using a double ten frame mat and unifix cubes to model moving
the cubes around to make ten.

It is really important for students to understand that addition is just a faster way to count, so you can move things around and still get get the same sum. She was showing them that the amount of cubes were not changing, just moving so you can make it easier for yourself and still get the same sum.

If students do not have quick and easy strategies for adding 10, this lesson will not go well. They need to know that adding 10 is easier and be able to do that quickly to make this strategy worthwhile.

Thank you Ms. A for doing such an excellent job on this lesson and letting me jump in and teach with you :)  

Using Cubes for Problem Solving

This week Mrs. Doyle and I had a great chance to see some CGI problem solving in action. KIPP DC has done a lot of work this year to push their students thinking and problem solving skills. One big takeaway we had is that students need cubes to directly model the problem. Understanding the context of the problem and being able to show what is happening is crucial for student understanding.

The cubes should be readily available and in towers of ten, of all the same color. We keep them in towers of ten to help students with base ten thinking. When they always start with groups of ten, they are much more likely to use base ten strategies to make counting and operations more efficient.

Cubes should always be out and being used during story problem time for K-2 and can be easily stored and hassle free!

As you can see, 1 black cube got mixed into the blue cube box. You have to really work with students on keeping them organized and putting them back into tens at the end of the lesson, but that can definitely do it!